John C. Holocaust testimony (HVT-3983) [videorecording] / interviewed by Samuel Kenner and Zelda Kaplan, November 5, 1997.

Peabody, Mass. : Holocaust Center of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, 1997.

1 videorecording (54 min.) : col.

English

Videotape testimony of John C., who was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in approximately 1922. He recalls attending Yale in fall 1940; attempting to enlist in the naval air corps after Pearl Harbor; failing to pass the eye test; enlisting in the army; beginning active duty in early 1943; assignment to a mobile engineering corps; landing in Le Havre; moving into Germany; entering Wöbbelin shortly after its liberation; horror at the conditions; local Germans being forced to dig mass graves; and not believing local Germans and POWs denying knowledge of the camp and demonstrating no remorse. Mr. C. reads from a letter to his father describing Wöbbelin and from information about the camp. He discusses having no preparation for what he saw at Wöbbelin, despite several years of combat experience; his inability to understand how Germans could do this; pride in his family's military service during the war; not discussing the Holocaust with his siblings (they did not see any camps); and sharing his experiences with his children when they studied the Holocaust.

June 01, 2002

John C. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3983). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

John C. Holocaust Testimony (HVT-3983). Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University Library.

Oral histories (document genres)